Spain’s Early World Cup Exit Leaves Fans Stunned

Spanish fans react while watching their team play against the Chileans on the giant screen on Wednesday in Madrid. Spain, current football World Cup champion, was eliminated from the competition after losing their second match 2-0.

Getty Images

Spanish fans reacted to the World Cup champion’s elimination with astonishment. In the Carabanchel district in southern Madrid, streets were dead silent at 2100 GMT, right after the end of the match, in which Spain was defeated by Chile, 2-0. This was a strong contrast with complaints and commentary coming from all directions after La Roja was trounced 5-1 by Netherlands in its opening match on Friday.

The defeat, which knocked the defending champions out of the tournament, came at a particularly delicate time: on Thursday, Felipe VI is due to be proclaimed Spain’s king, after his father Juan Carlos I announced his abdication earlier this month. With Madrid gearing for anticipated pro-republic protests, the letdown in soccer-crazy Spain is sure to be seen by many as a bad omen.

“Philip VI wishes to thank the national squad for its effort to get back to Spain in time for his proclamation,” joked José Luis Roldán, a 42-year conference organizer who lives in Palencia, northern Spain.

Commentators at Telecinco, the TV network that is broadcasting the World Cup in Spain, expressed their dismay at the national squad’s poor showing.

“Nobody here knows just what happened, not the players, and certainly not us,” said José Antonio Camacho, Spain’s coach during the 2002 World Cup and one of the Telecinco analysts for this World Cup.

Bars in Madrid that had been packed with TV spectators at the start of the match began emptying out early in the second half as the Spanish team failed to muster a comeback.

At Bar Sidi, a 71-year-old establishment in central Madrid, the crowd hung on until the bitter end, jammed around two large TV screens. Having mentally absorbed the loss, they barely reacted when the final whistle blew. After a few moments, though, some burst into chants of “España! España!”

“I feel let down,” Frank Peña, a 30-year-old computer programmer, said after the cheering had ended. He was wearing a red shirt with the insignia “2010 World Cup Champions.” Why, he was asked, did Spain lose so badly? “We went into the World Cup too confident. We weren’t hungry enough.”

“But I’m proud of what Spain has accomplished in the past few years,” he added, noting that Spain has won three major championships in a row, the fist team ever to do that, since the European Championship of 2008.

Another spectator, Francisco Lorenzo, 35, said the loss “was good for Spain, because we need to reposition ourselves, come back down to earth.”

“I’m not happy this happened,” he added, “but it’s good once in awhile to receive a bath of humility.”

Comments (4 of 4)

thanks to the commentaries which are more humorous. I like the one that the team did not want to miss the coronation for which the players were more interested in than retaining the world cup.

11:03 pm June 18, 2014

Solomon F Sakala(from Ndola, Zambia) wrote:

The problem was with composition of national team. Most of the players came from Barcelona fc. So it was like taking FC Barcelona to world cup football competitions.Besides Barcelona FC did not perform so well in La liga this season.Then most of the players have developed fatigue due to old age( 30 yrs and above) which is slowly catching up with most of them.

10:54 pm June 18, 2014

Solomon F Sakala(from Ndola, Zambia) wrote:

The problem was with composition of national team. Most of the players came from Barcelona fc. So it like taking FC barca to world cup football competitions.Besides Barcelona did not perform so well in La liga this season.Besides that most of the players have developed fatigue to old age( 30 yrs and above).

SPORTS, THE JOURNAL WAY

Be sure to check your Daily Fix all week long. The Fix's daily rundown of the best sportswriting on the Web is joined by features such as The Count, a look at the most revealing sports stats, as well as regular live reports of major sports events. Tell us what you think of the Fix at dailyfixlinks@gmail.com.